The area of software testing uses test automation tools that can be programmed to analyze and evaluate software application functionality without human intervention. During the automated test, there may be a need to identify specific elements or components of a graphical user interface that is being tested. This can occur where the test automation tool is not able to work with or have access to the underlying technology that was used to create the application being tested, and thus the test automation tool may need to identify a specific element in a captured image of the interface.
FIG. 1 depicts at 10 a prior art process for identifying a target image. In this approach, a single target image 12 is sought within a larger source image. The source may be acquired via a screen capture or snapshot taken from the computer screen, a transfer from a display buffer, or other mechanism. During the process 10, a search of the source image is executed at 14 for the target image 12. If the target image 12 is found in the source, as shown at 16, then the location of the found target image is returned. If the target image 12 is not found, then an indicator of such is returned at 18.